‘Reminiscencia’

Best online creation of 2020
—Chilean Art Critics Circle

One of the Top Ten shows in the 78th Avignon Festival
—Le Bruit Du Off

Sitting alone in front of his computer during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, artist Malicho Vaca Valenzuela started looking for maps of his city, Santiago, using different software programmes. He searched for images of certain locations at various times, both past and present, beginning with the area around his house. His neighbourhood, in the vicinity of the city centre, embraces both the community’s festive gatherings as well as their protests.

Vaca Valenzuela then began to conduct a more thorough excavation into the collective memory of the neighbourhood and the city at large. His social media post seeking testimonies and personal memories about public spaces received numerous responses. At the same time, he was visiting his grandparents to check on them, and they started to share their own memories with him, their stories intertwining with the others.

Reminiscencia gathers these fragments of intimate recollections alongside accounts of collective struggle to explore possible representations of memory and its attachment to certain places. Audience members are invited to quit chasing time and listen to the voices within them, to cling to what may still remain of a memory.